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Anime Tales of Arise - Shounen trying to be deep.

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Seems so, at least for bosses and big zeugles/mini bosses on the map. Trash mobs are still mindless as ever, but the bosses are great. I am not far in chapter 2 though.

Hey, thanks! I've been checking out some reviews and gameplay footage and this definitely looks like the best Tales game I've seen. Looks like they're taking the series in a good direction. Wish it wasn't so damn expensive. These past couple months have been sucking the money right out of my wallet, but I might go for it anyway.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Seems so, at least for bosses and big zeugles/mini bosses on the map. Trash mobs are still mindless as ever, but the bosses are great. I am not far in chapter 2 though.

Hey, thanks! I've been checking out some reviews and gameplay footage and this definitely looks like the best Tales game I've seen. Looks like they're taking the series in a good direction. Wish it wasn't so damn expensive. These past couple months have been sucking the money right out of my wallet, but I might go for it anyway.
Oh well finally hit my first wall on hardest difficulty. The bosses can be brutal here. It's just the first chapter is probably intentionally easier
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,925
You know it's shit when it appeals to normalfags.
-game looks good
Which part of it looks good? The half-assed anime characters + realistic environments aesthetic looks like shit.
E: actually, the characters look like ass in general, but they still stick out like a sore thumb compared to the environments.
 
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Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
1,633
Seems so, at least for bosses and big zeugles/mini bosses on the map. Trash mobs are still mindless as ever, but the bosses are great. I am not far in chapter 2 though.

Hey, thanks! I've been checking out some reviews and gameplay footage and this definitely looks like the best Tales game I've seen. Looks like they're taking the series in a good direction. Wish it wasn't so damn expensive. These past couple months have been sucking the money right out of my wallet, but I might go for it anyway.
Oh well finally hit my first wall on hardest difficulty. The bosses can be brutal here. It's just the first chapter is probably intentionally easier

Most of my losses so far have come from turning around to notice my AI companions are all dead from a bosses' super move as they were too dumb to dodge it. I just realized there's a FFXII-style gambit system, so tweaking that would probably lead to better results, but I haven't messed with it so far.

I'm enjoying it a lot, and most of the characters are reasonably fun to play, as well. I like switching to the sniper girl, her aerial wind homing special seems to be very effective. One of the bosses I exclusively played the mage girl.

I never played Xillia or much of Berseria... last tales I sunk any time into was Vesperia. I like this game a lot but don't know what to make of it. It's weird how it's grafted some Western popamole sensibilities onto a Tales game... where gathering points and sidequests and fast travel feature prominently.
 

Dedicated_Dark

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
957
Location
Beyond the Grave
I had the most unexpected epic encounter.
dzXq78S.jpg


AjpIupB.jpg


This is on hard, used everything I could. I think the retarded AI burned through my life bottles, I guess I have to go tweak that gambit/behaviour script shit! Was fun as hell though, was on the edge.

How it went:


Edit: Turned out to be part of a quest/ regular encounter. Was unexpected for me though.
 
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Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
It's weird how it's grafted some Western popamole sensibilities onto a Tales game... where gathering points and sidequests and fast travel feature prominently.

All of these started with Xillia (Executed worse and with some horrid, horrid level/area design. Which still isn't ideal, but much improved.). More Sidequests have been a part of it a bit longer.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Series peaked with Vesperia/Graces and has gone downhill since, every game is worse than the previous and I swear I won't buy the next one.

Yet, here we are. Targeting feels mushy and dodge is unresponsive (no cancelling from what I can tell though in past games that could be unlocked via usage). Looks cool though and I like the modernization in the hud and menu elements. Using a shoulder button to attack feels like blasphemy and unnecessary with no arts on Circle/B, so I may just remap the controls. Two worlds with oppressors/subjugated races actually feels like a callback to Symphonia/Eternia and other games so I'm not really seeing the 'current events' stuff some people are talking about. Princess REEEEEE Don't Touch Me I Don't Know You That's My Purse is at least p. hot.

I'll probably play more once I'm done with Like A Dragon cuz I can really only stand one JRPG at a time.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
my complain is you can't assign specific behavior to INDIVIDUAL character. dunno, I haven't tweaked with it much. but so far I know they can only be used as party wide options
 

Dedicated_Dark

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
957
Location
Beyond the Grave
my complain is you can't assign specific behavior to INDIVIDUAL character. dunno, I haven't tweaked with it much. but so far I know they can only be used as party wide options
Yeah, once I took a look, turns out it was just items/CP management. I run with both no items and Save CP below 50% for revive, works pretty well even though I have to micro the items. But yeah, wish they gave more control instead of making us open the menu more to win.
 

1451

Seeker
In My Safe Space
Joined
Jan 1, 2011
Messages
1,368
Horrible game. 150 euros worth of dlc on day 1. Could not play for more than thirty minutes. You meet two enemies, you press one button for your fartes and you insta kill them.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,925
Back in your days you relied on shitty fan translations.

Also, apparently there are character skills locked behind DLC costumes, get the fuck outta here.
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
"Forge your path" You can't get any other slogan more generic than this one.

Also, press button for awesome against a bunch of punching bag monsters. Meh
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Also, press button for awesome against a bunch of punching bag monsters. Meh

Not even remotely how the game plays, especially on Hard.

And no, you're not going to get even close to how the game actually plays in the first 30 minutes. Especially when you don't even have HP in those tutorial fights.
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Not even remotely how the game plays, especially on Hard.

And no, you're not going to get even close to how the game actually plays in the first 30 minutes. Especially when you don't even have HP in those tutorial fights.

Well until I see a fleshed out gameplay on hard mode, from the trailer looked kinda like genshin impact, which revolves around mostly bullying sluggish enemies over and over, with exception of some bosses.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
1,633
The random encounters are mostly easy, but you still have to manage a lot on the battlefield. Typically you do this by calling one of your party members' 'assists' a la marvel versus capcom, which will teleport them to an enemy and have them do an attack. Certain party members can break an enemy's shields, interrupt their spells, put a wall in front of charging enemies, immobilize agile enemies, etc. Surveying the battlefield and knowing when to call in an assist is important even in random encounters on hard, and taking control of multiple party members has been beneficial for me, as well. MC is still my favorite to use, but I do like the sniper girl and the knight woman.

The mage girl is also a lot fun to use- Codex loves it Dragon's Dogma wizards, but I think it's done equally as well here.

First few hours is definitely not indicative of the whole game.

Your second 'hotbar' of useable artes isn't even unlocked until after you get your final party member.
 
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Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Well until I see a fleshed out gameplay on hard mode

Dedicated_Dark posted a video only a few posts above your own which is a good, concise example of what some of the more difficult encounters would look like, where you have to utilize everything you have to get by.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to buy the game or anything (because lord knows it's been plenty successful already), but when you state things about gameplay as if they are fact without even having played the game yet - and basing it on a fairly cinematic trailer no less - it tends to be pretty misleading to people who come here expecting commentary. This, in turn, might cause someone to overlook the game entirely because they saw a few posts that said "oh it's an awesome button game" when it most certainly is not.

The game plays nothing like the gameplay-abortion that is Genshin Impact. Their similarities end with the nice-looking vistas and anime-style character design.
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
That posted gameplay flew over my head because was hidden in a spoiler tag.
But anyway, I was quite wrong, the gameplay has zero relation to Gacha Impact, thought that at first, because I've confused the assist shown on the trailer with character toggling. Now I realize is rather similar to Xenoblade, but your PC is more mobile.
The edgy looking dragon seemed pretty static, but that kinda expected cuz the gist of this kind of gameplay is to commit into attack-chaining to scale damage, not prancing around spamming a single skill, which usually does chip damage as the gameplay proves.
Just as in Xenoblade, I still don't like the constant shouting and overly cinematic skill moves.
But It left me a far better impression than the trailer for sure.
 

distant

Learned
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
181
Not bad. Kind of scratches a similar itch as Odin's Sphere in that you're juggling combos and coming up with basic combos on the fly, subbing in magic, back to normals. Team management can be a bit of a pain especially when your allies wipe but I like being able to switch around mid combat after each dropped combo, it kind of keeps combat feeling pretty fresh and gives a better idea of how to build each one. I'm pretty sure you can cancel out of regular attacks but not artes, so don't commit if you need to dodge.

Aesthetically it looks alright, cel-shaded look on the environments looks good and the characters aren't all high school kids so that's always nice. I can see myself playing through this in bursts, with breaks in between (otherwise the repetition will definitely wear me down). All in all though, pretty cool.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
This, in turn, might cause someone to overlook the game entirely because they saw a few posts that said "oh it's an awesome button game"
this is only true after the tutorial. after the game struly starts, it's 100% the opposite. though I admit it does take a long time (i'd count the real game only start after the first lord) to take off, but damn the combat is the best in the series. there is just so much to do and each characters truly felt different, and it requires the right combination of rates, timing, and skill to rack up combos and survive tough boss fights. i like the fact that money is really hard to come buy and healing items are actually expensive, though I feel it's quite balanced as I never truly run out of things outside of big boss battles but it does feel truly pressing because if you get too careless you'd run out of gels that's hard to replace. the CP system is great too as you cannot spam healing rates forever and in 1 individual battles it just depend on orange gels with is even more expensive.


the boost combo stops being insta win quite fast, and individual boost attacs are useful to stun enemies with specific weakness. each character have their own gimmics too. alph with the fire sword that sacrifice HP, shionne with grenade and if you use the "shoot the grenade" with the last bullet it deals more damage, rinwell can charge her magic and steal enemies' spell if you boost when they cast, law gets stronger the more combo you have. it's just genius design and every character is fun so far.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,910
Strap Yourselves In
Not much time lately to post a long review, so I'm just gonna say I'm giving this an honest try, as a fan of Berseria.
I don't like the lack of edginess thus far, and the focus does seem to be on a protagonist's 'powers', rather than their weaknesses (which is what Berseria tried and succeeded at doing). Vastly more positive and upbeat game thus far in terms of atmosphere, despite the childish attempts at 'grim'.
Combat difficulty needs an increase from the get-go, but it rewards difficulty increases with extra XP. This is what every game should do.


And a reminder that the supposed 'haters' in this thread have been thus far either private profiles (worthless) or WRPG moles (equally worthless). Those with an agenda are many, and they are among us. And you can rest assured they have never touched the game.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
As someone who has never considered himself as a fan of the Tales series, this game has not only pleasantly surprised me, but also shattered my expectations.

and it requires the right combination of rates, timing, and skill to rack up combos and survive tough boss fights.

The first real boss fight (ie lord) was one of the coolest encounters I've had in an action RPG, largely in part how they managed to interweave the gameplay with cinematic narrative so flawlessly and enjoyably. Beyond that, it was a satisfying double phase fight and on Hard it was a real challenge. Also cool that

the astral manifestation is not only attacking you, but Lord Balseph too. Nice spin on things there.

Solid fucking gameplay so far.

i like the fact that money is really hard to come buy and healing items are actually expensive, though I feel it's quite balanced as I never truly run out of things outside of big boss battles but it does feel truly pressing because if you get too careless you'd run out of gels that's hard to replace. the CP system is great too as you cannot spam healing rates forever and in 1 individual battles it just depend on orange gels with is even more expensive.

And you nail another couple features that have impressed me greatly. Tight economy with serious repercussions for squandering healing items. It's an answer to the hoarder mentality we all have (come on, you know you have it) in JRPGs, and it pushes you to not only use your resources. but use them wisely. This is good JRPG design. CP is a part of this, but not only that, an exploration mechanic as well. Having your pool of points for a dungeon crawl be tied to your ability to heal in battle AND furthering your exploration, item and equipment discovery, etc. is simple but extremely cleaver. It makes efficient exploration meaningful.

each character have their own gimmics too. alph with the fire sword that sacrifice HP, shionne with grenade and if you use the "shoot the grenade" with the last bullet it deals more damage, rinwell can charge her magic and steal enemies' spell if you boost when they cast, law gets stronger the more combo you have. it's just genius design and every character is fun so far.

The game really encourages you to keep combat fresh and exciting this way. Swapping characters is a joy and very satisfying, especially when you start to master everyone's playstyles a little more. Having this kind of variety in an action RPG is important, and the Ys series could actually learn a thing or two from this game in terms of that with their party system.

Aesthetically it looks alright,

The game is gorgeous both in terms of art direction and graphically. I don't know what world this looks just alright in, but I don't live in it.

focus does seem to be on a protagonist's 'powers', rather than their weaknesses

I haven't played Berseria, but I know that was a thematic focus of that game. Definitely going to have to try it now that I've been enjoying Arise so much. I have to say though, that while the narrative focuses quite a bit on the strengths of the characters, it's been nice for them to juxtapose their weaknesses too. Having this dual-protagonist setup helps that a lot, with Alphen and Shionne both being massively flawed and incomplete characters, but coming together with their imperfections and finding a way to become whole, despite the discomfort this might cause. Alphen, for example, is a bit of an inversion of the standard JRPG hero trope in that he is too strong for his own good, to the point of literally not feeling pain. It's a fairly basic theme, but the way they've handled it so far has been nice, and both characters are likeable despite their obvious need for growth. Either way, I'm invested enough in the setting and characters so far that I can forgive the pretty standard driving force they've set up for a character impetus and main goal. I have a feeling they're going to do something to turn it on its head later, but we'll see.

Tales of Arise is a good enough game to cause me to look back on a series I had basically shunned my entire life post-Symphonia, and consider picking out a few of the "gems" in it and playing them in the near future. Vesperia and Berseria being top among them. Beyond that, Arise is just a blast to play. PLAY IT ON HARD. That's one thing, I wish there was another difficulty above Hard, but I've been satisfied with the challenge I've gotten so far. Sounds like it'll only get better too.

EDIT: OH! And that soundtrack so far, man. Some of the best I've heard from Motoi Sakuraba since Star Ocean II/Baten Kaitos.
 
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